What is the meaning of qiyas al-shumul?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The student: Qiyas al-shumul is in three matters: al-shumul, al-tamthil, and al-awlawiyyah...?
The Shaykh : Al-shumul: I told you that all these words of generality, they say, are from the chapter of qiyas al-shumul. For example, a person includes every person: small, large, male, female, free, or slave.
The student: Al-tamthil?
The Shaykh : Al-tamthil is like measuring barley against wheat in the application of riba, because it is like it; all of it is food and all of it is measured.
The student: ...?
The Shaykh : No, because the original speech, in that it is speech, is an attribute of perfection. So the one who speaks is more perfect than the one who does not speak. But the subject of the speech is the same subject; this is outside the original attribute. The same subject is what is good, or evil, or vulgar.
The student: ...?
The Shaykh : Which of them?
The student: Speech?
The Shaykh : It is by which Allah is described absolutely. It is described by it, but it is not named by it. Meaning, we do not say that Allah is al-Mutakallim (the Speaker) and make it a name. But Allah is described by it on the basis of absoluteness, because speech, in that it is a perfection, is an attribute of perfection. That is the end.
He created it for a wisdom, so His creation of it for this wisdom was good.
The Shaykh : Al-shumul: I told you that all these words of generality, they say, are from the chapter of qiyas al-shumul. For example, a person includes every person: small, large, male, female, free, or slave.
The student: Al-tamthil?
The Shaykh : Al-tamthil is like measuring barley against wheat in the application of riba, because it is like it; all of it is food and all of it is measured.
The student: ...?
The Shaykh : No, because the original speech, in that it is speech, is an attribute of perfection. So the one who speaks is more perfect than the one who does not speak. But the subject of the speech is the same subject; this is outside the original attribute. The same subject is what is good, or evil, or vulgar.
The student: ...?
The Shaykh : Which of them?
The student: Speech?
The Shaykh : It is by which Allah is described absolutely. It is described by it, but it is not named by it. Meaning, we do not say that Allah is al-Mutakallim (the Speaker) and make it a name. But Allah is described by it on the basis of absoluteness, because speech, in that it is a perfection, is an attribute of perfection. That is the end.
He created it for a wisdom, so His creation of it for this wisdom was good.